Time Management with Tracks
Over the holidays, there was a general theme that was briefly touched on by almost everyone that I visited:
You get the basement finished yet?
The sad matter of fact: No, I have not finished the basement yet. I'll probably spend more time scouring the basement for where I left the tools, than on actually cutting wood and nailing up trim. The basement is functional, and a mess.
This small amount of work fell by the wayside because of prioritization. After my 40+ hour work week is padded with my time in traffic, the other two businesses, the time I am left with is usually filled with ironically analytical pastimes. The basement was never given priority, and my assumption the real root cause: No real deadline. I've decided to change that, and start getting things done.
There is no shortage of good productivity material on the internet, so I decided to start a process by which I can get more of the little stuff done, while not neglecting the big stuff. After swirling around a fixed schedule, and perhaps allocating all of my time to: Work, Home and Play, I figured the best thing I could do was to create, track and self impose deadlines on myself.
After I had determined my need, I worked on finding a tool to fill that space. I basically needed something that would manage tasks, including re-occuring daily tasks as well as having whatever I use be accessible almost anywhere. I thought of going with my trusty notebook, and managing the lists of ToDo items that way. However, I found at work that when you have a daily task (Enter Timesheet or Workout), that writing it out day after day, was a waste of time. Furthermore, once it was delegated to a 'daily' task list, the familiarity of the list meant that I didn't revisit it and eventually an item or two would be forgotten. Then I looked for something more technological.
Next, Google Calendar, and its task management, were examined. The fit using the calendar directly didn't feel right. The Calendar is more to keep track of events, not so much things that you need to do. Placing a 'Work on Basement' on Saturday doesn't show progress, or allow me to work on the tasks earlier if I have free time. Google has also implemented a task list, where you add tasks to a number of lists that get plunked into your calendar. The Calendar implementation also carries to my iPhone so it's available almost everywhere. Again, the shortcoming was re-occuring tasks. In addition, the tasks added additional clutter to my already packed calendar.
Consulting the Internet, I was directed towards Tracks. Currently, it appears to fill my needs. It both handles re-occuring tasks very well; furthermore it is online where I can access it almost anywhere, and it has a mobile version that I can access from my phone. Tracks is also freely available on github, which resulted in me immediately downloading and installing it. I'll test drive it until my birthday and see how I like it. The first thing to go into Tracks: four tasks for finishing the basement.
